Frozen Hell
by ClassicGamer
Summary: During a run a freak snow storm splits the group apart. Rick and Glenn end up trapped in a general store, while Daryl takes an injured Carl back to the prison.
1. Chapter 1

Rick woke up cold, winter had come to Georgia, and it was obvious. The southern state rarely experienced snow but over the past couple of days you wouldn't know that. Every day it seemed like it snowed a little bit harder. It wasn't large amounts of snow, and it melted rather quickly, but it still made it unbearably cold, especially when you live in a prison that doesn't have a heating system or an abundance of warm clothing.

Rick dressed and left his cell, he could tell from the lack of noise that no one else in the cellblock was awake. He ate a quick breakfast before going to do keep watch for an hour or two. He needed the alone time to think about the day ahead.

When he exited C Block he saw that it was snowing twice as hard as it had been last night. He let out an annoyed sigh; he was planning to bring Morgan to the prison. When the Governor came back they'd have even more weapons, and Morgan's knowledge of traps would be another benefit of having his friend here. But with this rapidly increasing snowfall getting to King's County would be more difficult.

When Rick got to the watchtower he was surprised to find Michonne already up there. "What are you doing?" He asked upon seeing the swordswoman.

"I woke up about an hour ago, thought I'd keep watch while everyone else was asleep." Michonne answered as she turned to look at her friend. "You still think it's a good idea to make that run today?" She asked, knowing that the snow would make the journey more difficult.

Rick nodded, "Yeah. There's no telling when the Governor will attack again, the sooner we get Morgan here the better."

"You still think it's a good idea to bring Carl along?" Michonne knew that Carl and Rick's relationship was under a lot of strain lately. It'd been that way since the Governor's first attack. Originally Carl had just been mad at Rick, but now it had gotten worse. Carl had been avoiding his father, and wouldn't talk to him. Rick wasn't sure how to deal with how his son had been acting.

"Yeah, he's been cooped up in here since the attack. Getting out of here will do him some good." Rick replied, he was trying to sound confident but it sounded much more like he was trying to convince himself more than Michonne. The woman only nodded before turning back to look over the prison yard.

"Go get ready," She told him, "If you leave now you'll have the best chance of avoiding any weather related problems." Rick nodded once again before turning and heading back into the cellblock.

Daryl took his seat in the back with Carl. Rick and Glenn were in the front, driver and passenger sides respectively. Everyone was wearing the warmest close they owned, at least three layers. Daryl guessed that when the rest of the world went to hell it must've taken the climate with it. Everyone was also very tired, Rick had woken them up at the crack of dawn, and they were none too pleased about it.

They were about halfway through their journey, Carl had fallen asleep and Daryl felt like he was pretty close to joining him. They had the heat cranked as high as it could be and none of them had been this warm all week, compared to the prison the car might as well have been a beach in the middle of summer. Right as Daryl felt like he was going to drift off though he was jerked into the door next to him, and after that he saw the world around him start to spin as the car tumbled over. The vehicle finally stopped rolling when it slammed into a tree off the side of the road. Luckily it had landed upright with its wheels on the ground.

"Is everyone alright?" Rick asked after taking a moment to make sure the car wasn't going to keep tumbling.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Glenn answered.

"My head hurts like a bitch, but I'm alright." Came Daryl's reply, after a short moment of silence Rick looked back at his son.

"Carl? You alright?" He asked as he reached out and shook the boy's shoulder, when he didn't wake up Rick started to become concerned. Daryl unbuckled his seatbelt and moved over next to the boy, placing his hand on Carl's neck.

"He's alive, just out cold." Daryl said after taking a moment to check the child's pulse. Rick let out a sigh of relief at the news that his son was still alive.

"Wake him up. He might be hurt, and if he is we need to do something about it." Rick explained before turning back to the front of the car. Daryl nodded before he went to work trying to wake up the unconscious child. After a few moments Carl's eyes blinked open, not long after the teen became acutely aware of how badly his head hurt.

"What happened?" He groaned while looking around the car and then out the window, seeing that there was a tree pressing into his door.

"We swerved on some ice and the car flipped over, you got knocked out. Are you alright?" Rick asked gently.

Carl nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." He answered, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't speaking to his dad. "My head really hurts though." He added before pressing one of his hands against his head, when he pulled it away and looked at it his eyes went wide as he noticed that it was covered with blood. The others noticed and Daryl grabbed the teen to get a look at his injury. Carl's hair was matted with blood, and when they looked at Carl's window they saw that there was blood smeared on it.

"Shit." Glenn breathed at seeing the injury; Rick pinched the bridge of his nose while he processed this new piece of information. He reached across to the glove compartment and looked inside for some bandages.

"Damn it." He groaned when he didn't find any, "Alright, there's a general store up the road a few miles, we'll drive there and grab some bandages." He explained calmly. Rick then turned to look out the front window, only to find that it was completely engulfed in snow. The former police officer groaned for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He got out the crashed car and brushed the snow off the windshield. Getting back in the vehicle he attempted to drive, only to find that the tires didn't have enough traction.

"Son of a bitch!" Rick shouted, he turned back to look at Carl who looked like he was going to pass out, "Carl, you need to stay awake. You might have a concussion and if you fall asleep you could go into a coma." Then Rick opened up his door and got out of the car. "I'm going to walk to the store."

"I'll come with you." Glenn volunteered as he got out of the car. Rick nodded and turned to Daryl and Carl.

"You two stay here, Daryl make sure Carl doesn't fall asleep." He instructed. Then he and Glenn started their journey to the store. It couldn't have been more than ten yards before they disappeared inside the blizzard.

Rick and Glenn had been walking for about an hour when they finally reached the general store they had set out to find. They ran two the front door, wanting to get out of the snow storm as soon as possible. They found that the door had a large buildup of snow in front of it, but they quickly dug through it.

Upon entering the store the two men let out sighs of relief. The general store didn't have any sort of heating system on, but compared to the blizzard outside the store was a dozen times better. Their relief didn't last long though; they were here for a reason. They needed to get Carl some bandages. Rick also thought that grabbing some painkillers would be a good idea. So they set about searching for the supplies they needed.

After finding what they needed Rick and Glenn headed for the door, when they tried to open it however the door wouldn't budge. Rick tried again to force the door open, and again to no avail.

"God damn it!" Rick yelled, "There's so much snow outside that the door won't open." He explained as he started to pace back and forth.

"What do you mean there's too much snow? We haven't even been in here for five minutes!" Glenn complained, "What the hell are we going to do?" He asked, his voice making his concern evident.

"I don't know. Maybe there's a back entrance, one that an employ would have used." With that Rick and Glenn set about searching for such an entrance, they found one. Only to find that it too was frozen shut. Rick kicked the door in his frustration. "Great! What are we supposed to do now?" He shouted.

"We'll just have to stay calm and wait for the blizzard to die down. Eventually Daryl and Carl will come looking for us. Once they find us we can get out of here." Glenn answered, trying to calm his friend down. Glenn's plan didn't make Rick feel much better about their predicament, it actually made him feel worse. His son and best friend were out there, in the middle of a blizzard. How long would it be before they started to worry about him and Glenn? And if they did come looking for them would Carl be alright? If he had a concussion like Rick suspected then trudging through a blizzard would do him more harm than good.

Rick let out a heavy sigh as he sat down against the wall, the only thing he could do at this point was hope that the storm let up before Carl and Daryl became concerned enough to start looking for them.


	2. Chapter 2

"You still awake?"

"Yeah."

Five minutes passed then, "How 'bout now?"

"Yes." Carl and Daryl had been having the same exchange every five minutes since Rick and Glenn had left. It started out innocently enough on Daryl's part, Rick had told him to make sure Carl didn't fall asleep in his possibly concussed state, and that's just what he was doing. Carl however had been mad before the first time Daryl had asked. _"Daryl, make sure Carl doesn't fall asleep."_ That's what his dad had said, like he couldn't be trusted to keep himself awake. It was another great example of his dad not trusting him.

"Are you asleep now?" Daryl asked monotonously

"No!" Carl snapped back, Daryl turned to him and chuckled, the man had been trying to see how long he could keep up this chain of conversation before Carl finally lost it. After having his laugh he looked back at the boy. Carl's hand was still placed firmly on his wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Let me see your head." Daryl commanded calmly, Carl nodded and took his hand away from the wound. Daryl glanced down at the boys hand and cringed at the sight he was greeted with. Carl's entire hand was soaked in blood; Daryl shook his head and chose to ignore the hand. He reached forward and took Carl's chin between his fingers, turning the teen's head to look at the wound. Gently Daryl pressed his index and middle fingers to the damaged part of the child's skull. Carl winced in pain and bit down on his lower lip to avoid making any sound.

"Well, ya stopped bleedin' so we don't have to worry about that anymore." Daryl informed his friend. Carl just nodded in response. "That doesn't mean you can be nodding off now. Your dad and Glenn should be back soon; when they get back we'll patch you up and take your back to the prison." Carl stifled a groan at Daryl's words; the last thing he wanted was to go back to the prison. He hadn't been allowed to go on any runs since the attack, and now when he finally got to go one he wasn't even able to see it through. He kept his mouth shut though and went back to sitting quietly.

…

It had been an hour since Daryl had examined Carl, but Rick and Glenn were nowhere to be seen. Daryl looked at the car's clock. It was one thirty PM. They had crashed at about eleven AM. He looked over at Carl, he was still awake but Daryl was started to become worried about having him stuck in this car. The storm didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon, the car only had so much time before the battery died, and when that happened the heat would go off. Daryl sighed; he knew what he had to do.

"They should be back by now." He started, Carl turned to him when he spoke. His expression made it clear that he knew what Daryl was saying, they were going to leave the car. Carl didn't know whether they were going to search for them or head back to the prison, but he knew what Daryl was trying to say. "Listen, we're gonna head back to the prison. Don't worry about yer dad and Glenn. I'll come back and look for em. But right now I have to get you back to the prison so we can get ya looked at." Carl just nodded in response. "Alright then." Daryl opened up the door on his side and got out. Grabbing his hat, Carl followed, starting their long cold hike back to the prison.

The pair had been walking five minutes when Carl spoke, "You don't have to come back here. My dad's dead." Daryl stopped in his tracks and looked back at the teenager. There was no indecision in his voice, no emotion either. His face was exactly the same, devoid of any feeling. It was like he didn't even care. Daryl had no idea how to respond to that. Carl hadn't even stopped moving; he walked right by Daryl as if neither of them had said a thing.

As they continued walking the blizzard got worse with each passing minute, the air was biting cold. The snow coming towards them clung to their clothes and made it so that they could barely see five feet in front of themselves. Daryl could feel the cold was slowing him down and taking a toll on his body. If he thought there was any chance that they could get a fire going then he'd take it so that they could rest. But the ground was covered in over a foot of snow, and it kept coming down. They'd been driving for two hours before the car crashed, it would take them at least twice that long to get back to the prison.

Daryl stopped and turned back to Carl, the teenager was lagging behind, no doubt due to the cold air. Every time he took a step he felt the snow penetrate his shoes and socks. He could feel it get under the leg of his jeans and freeze his legs. Carl saw that Daryl was waiting for him and silently cursed himself; he and Daryl were going to freeze to death because of how slow he was walking.

The next step he took made him fall face forward into the snow, casting his hat from his head. He'd taken a step into a concealed pothole and fell because of it. Daryl was at his side helping him up almost immediately. Carl looked around for his hat, the wind was blowing it in the direction they'd come from. He took after it as soon as he saw it.

"Carl! What are ya doing man?" Daryl called after him.

"I have to get it." He shouted back, trudging through the snow after his hat, not at all willing to let it be taken from him. Eventually the wind let up and the Stetson settled on the snow, where Carl picked it up and placed it firmly on his head.

When Carl returned to Daryl he gave the older man and apologetic look, he knew that he'd just wasted valuable time so that he could chase a hat. Daryl just nodded and started down the road again, Carl followed this time being careful to avoid the pothole.

"How do you know we're going the right way?" Carl asked after a while.

Daryl turned his head towards the boy but didn't stop walking, "Cause we're on the road, and we didn't get off onto any other roads before the crash." The mention of the crash reminded Daryl of something, "How's yer head?"

"It still hurts really badly." Carl answered, unconsciously raising a hand to touch the wound, "Are you alright?" He asked, feeling bad for not having asked sooner.

"Eh, my head hurts like hell. But I wasn't bleedin' or unconscious afterwards so I'm fine." Daryl responded with a small grin on his face. Carl just nodded in reply. They continued walking in silence.

Over an hour passed before the two said a word to one another, they were two focused on the road ahead. Daryl was still thinking about what Carl had said, "_My 'dad's dead."_ Why would he think that? Yea they'd been gone longer than they should have been but that didn't mean they were dead. How could the kid be so sure of himself? Did he want Rick dead? Daryl shook his head at that thought. It was ridiculous, yeah Carl hadn't been getting along with Rick lately, but that didn't mean he wanted his father dead.

What had bothered him the most though, was that Carl wasn't at all fazed by what he'd said. He'd said it to Daryl like it was fact, no question in his voice, no emotion on his face. In that moment Carl might as well have been a robot. The hunter let out a heavy sigh, part of what bothered Daryl so much is that it could be true. Carl could be right; Rick and Glenn might be dead right now.

Daryl looked back at the boy, he was becoming even more sluggish, Daryl guessed that they'd been walking for about three or four hours at this point, it was going to get dark soon, and when that happened the temperature would drop more. He let out a sigh and stood where he was, letting Carl catch up to him.

"You alright?" He asked when Carl finally was next to him, the teen nodded. But Daryl could tell that he was close to giving out. They were both covered in snow, but Daryl knew that Carl had it worse. The kid might have a concussion, the blood loss wasn't helping, and he'd fallen into the pothole earlier so his entire body was pretty soaked from the snow, all that and the fact that they'd been walking for so long, he wasn't sure how much longer the kid could go without collapsing.

As if on cue Carl suddenly lurched forward, falling onto all fours into the snow. Immediately Daryl was next to him, pulling him up. He could feel Carl shivering violently, the boy wiped the snow onto his jacket and then stared at his bare hands, curling his fingers into fists to make sure that he could still feel and move them.

We need to get going he thought, he took a few deep breaths before turning to Daryl and nodded. The man gave him a questioning look before he nodded back. _We can't be much farther_, Carl thought to himself, _we've been walking for hours, the prison can't be far. _ He no longer cared about the run; Morgan could've frozen to death like his dad at this point. All he wanted to do was get to the prison and wrap himself in a blanket.

"Carl." Daryl called looking over at the teen with a grin; he then jerked his head in the direction they were walking. Carl's eyes widened with joy, he could see the prison. It was so close. They took off, trudging through the snow as fast as they could.


End file.
